Jerwood Bank 2007

Susanna’s clip from the 9th August.
Duration: 30 seconds

Roberta’s clip from the 9th August. 
Duration: 16 seconds

7 days into the process: lots of information.
Income-outcome:
Excitement-exaustion.
Internal-external.
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End of day 7. We have given the difficult task of finding the simplest , or should I say, most spare movements. These ‘moments’ then have to be put through a short musical score so that literally a move relates to a note. The song can then be sung physically…. This is a demanding task on many levels: It forces the body into connections it wouldn’t normally make. It cuts through any attachment you may have had to the original movement and what is was doing or trying to express. It demands that you remember how the movement relates to the score physically, before you can begin to refine your ’song’ in terms of quality. All this just so we can move forward to the main ideas for this year’s Bank, and all in one week.
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……because my computer froze i could not publish the following (6/10 08 2007):

The task we have been given so far have opened up a window on duration of movement.

Around tuesday: (FIRST TASK) I closed my eyes and dipped my head and body into a sea of events eventually finding 8 of them short fragments/thought/idea numbering them and combine them with the notes of a musical score.
Around thurday: (SECOND TASK) I closed my eyes and dipped my head and body into a similar but not quite, sea of events, eventually finding one event, a movement originating from a reaction to something. After splitting it into fragments I shuffled them around and combined them with the note of a musical score.

Long process of struggling to fit the movement to the structure, struggling to keep the “in between” movement alive, struggling to avoid the movement to become mechanical, spending a long time refining the movement, figuring out what it was exactly , trying to be as detailed/true as possible.
Found the first task more difficult then the second one, didn’ t manage to get to the end of the musical score, didn’ t allowed myself to any “artistic licence”, thought I was not fast enough to fit the movement to the given structure, learned an interesting way to create material or extend a movement/action.
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Here are some questions for consideration from Sarah & Deb:

What is a portrait?

What do you choose to reveal?

What do you consider public and private?

Are you allowing both to be seen?

Are you allowing the viewer to build up an understanding of who you are or what you are saying?

Can we trust in the clarity of our fragments of movement, without the need for linear narrative, and their ability to resonate with the viewer?

After a week of investigating the ’song structure’, we introduced the idea of ‘portrait’. This exploration is to last the whole of the rest of this Bank Project.

Each person is to work alone to find a physical expression of a certain character or personality. The songs can be used as a starting point if that exploration has proved fruitfull.We presented the dancers with books of photographs, paintings, drawings and writing. They were also free to find their own sources of inspiration.

We talked about the idea of presenting the movement to the front. That whether expressing public or private ideas, we allow these ideas to be seen; we let an audience in.

the time of writing has come – finding the way in to things seeming always so delicate (for me, at least at the moment) – and this seems reflected in how i work in the studio as well; there is a story about a potential bride who, upon meeting her bridegroom’s parents, is given a tangled ball of thread to unravel… and thus reveals her sensitivity of touch, resourcefulness, inner grace which slips past and beneath the radar of impatient confrontation, breath that sees through the surface tension of frustration… given – i am not meeting potential in-laws (oh, but there was that trip to norway, hmmm), but i do feel the meaning is not lost in work such as this.
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The longer I stay in this process the more there is to discover…..

During the hours we spend with each task the opposite happens to what I expect…..that instead of finding answers/solutions, all I keep finding is more questions.

Perhaps with time I will become more easy going about letting something live in the journey rather that the destination.

Lets hope!